


Gone

by Joe_Reaves



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Break Up, Ficlet, M/M, S3 Ep1 Doubt, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-09
Updated: 2010-04-09
Packaged: 2017-10-08 19:55:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joe_Reaves/pseuds/Joe_Reaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gideon is gone, Hotch is pissed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gone

The letter had been on his desk when he got in that morning. Sitting there, neatly placed on his keyboard, looking deceptively harmless. He recognised Gideon's handwriting and opened it curiously, wondering what Gideon had to say that couldn't have been said last night over dinner or later when they were in bed together.

He read it twice to be sure. He'd expected some kind of fall out from Frank's bloody re-emergence. Losing his team had nearly destroyed Gideon, losing someone he'd already saved, somebody he'd led Frank to ... well Hotch had expected Gideon to react badly to that, but it had been two weeks and nothing had happened. He'd begun to relax, to think that maybe this time it would be OK. This time Gideon wasn't alone. He had his team and he had Aaron.

A cursory check of Gideon's office showed that Gideon had already cleared it out. He'd expected that though; he'd only checked for the sake of thoroughness.

He stalked through the building, scattering agents as he passed. If Gideon thought he could just resign without discussing it, without even telling him in person, he had another thought coming. Driving to Gideon's place he cursed himself for not realising that the other shoe was yet to drop. He was a profiler, he should have seen it, the trouble was Gideon was a profiler too and he knew how to hide.

He leaned on the bell when he got to Gideon's apartment, but there was no answer. Concern beginning to overtake anger, he let himself in. Gideon had given a spare key when they first got together. 'For Emergencies' he'd said, but Hotch had known that it was Gideon's way of showing his feeling without having to articulate them.

Opening the door, he stopped dead. The place had been cleaned out. Some of the furniture remained but every personal touch was gone. Hotch swore again, no one could make him lose control the way Gideon could. He was hurt that Gideon could do this, but mostly he was just angry. Angry that Gideon had run away. Angry that Gideon hadn't had the courage to talk to him about it. Angry at himself for not seeing there was a problem. But mostly just angry that he was going to have to drive back to the BAU and tell the team what had happened. Morgan would be angry, Garcia would be confused, Prentiss would be irritated but hadn't known him long enough to be hurt by it, Reid ... Reid would be devastated.

He could deal with Gideon abandoning him, he'd always known it would happen one day. But he would never forgive him for hurting Reid like this, for making him hurt Reid like this and he knew the rest of the team would feel the same.

Gideon could leave if he wanted, remove himself from their presence as surely as if he'd never been there, but now that he'd done it he'd better never come back.


End file.
